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Sunday, October 18, 2009

Haunted House NYC: Vampires

Recently, my friends and I went to a haunted house. The haunted house was at the CSV Cultural Center. The theme this year was Vampires. Last year, it was Nightmares and prior to that, it was a Haunted Maze all at the same location.

The coolest thing about this year was that the story started with a tour of the Museum of Vampyric Artifacts. This museum is open during the day for its exhibitions about different vampyric creatures from different countries. The attraction started with a dorky tour guide with fangs (of course), who walked us through the different exhibits of this museum. Because I’m used to these haunted houses, I kept turning around, anticipating any fright they tried to pull on me. While the tour guide was asking us questions about vampire history, the air was filled with loud screeching screams from the different sections of the space. The screams were startling and had me on edge until we were interrupted.

We entered the area where there was a dagger that was on display. He told us that it’s very fragile and imported from another country. When he opened the case to show us, the case was broken in. He soon assured us that it was a trick to scare us. Then he lifted up the case of its real destination and alas, the mere silhouette of the dagger was left for us to see. Then a bloodied vampire hunter rushed into our group and bellowed that a crazy vampire was on the loose. Just as he finished his story, the guide was swallowed up by a dark clothed vampire, screaming, and we were told by the hunter to follow his screams. This ended our story and the beginning of the maze.

We entered dark hallways, screaming actors jumping from the darkness, close and tight spaces, and a feeling of scary anticipation for the next fright. At the end of the night, you felt exhilarated, giggling from nervousness (or fear), and on a high to do the next thing.

For the easily scared, this haunted attraction will give you quite a fright. For someone like myself who enjoys the thrill of being petrified, the chill factor was a mere 5 on a scale of 1-10. However, I did enjoy myself and would do it all over again.